Pat and Sari's Honeymoon Bike Ride

Thursday, March 06, 2008
Fredericksburg, VA to Hopewell, VA
75 miles (382 total miles)

Day 6 started clear and a little chilly but warmed up nicely. We were not looking forward to another day of Route 1 traffic and hills, but neither was a problem when we started out. There was little traffic and the hills were gentler and less frequent, which made the biking fairly pleasant.

There was little of interest along the route today, but there were frequent historical markers. We took pictures of as many as we could, but it was amazing how many came at inconvenient times, like the bottom of a hill when we were trying to build up steam to go up the next hill. We saw several trucks loaded with cut pine trees and finally came across where they were headed. We watched pine trees go from trunks to finished boards at a saw mill.

We rolled into Ashland in time for lunch and found a great restaurant along the road, The Smokey Pig. A friendly fisherman at the next table kept us entertained during lunch. We kept going down Route 1 into Richmond after lunch. Traffic was getting heavier. We saw some pretty streets in Richmond, got some views of the Capitol, the downtown skyline and the beautiful James River. As we moved out of Richmond, though, the traffic kept getting worse and started fraying our nerves. We were relieved to finally get off Route 1.

We were staying with a high school friend of Pat's, John Thompson, and his lovely wife, Diana, in Hopewell, VA, about 20 miles south of Richmond. John has a fairly advanced case of ALS, but still drove out to escort us through the suburban streets to his house. We had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed John and Diana's company. We managed to do some work on the web site before turning in. Tomorrow - a day off! We look forward to catching up with the site, our emails, and some other business, as well as cleaning the bike and our clothes, and resting our legs and our butts!